Times flies when you doing admin!

It feels just a week or 2 since I last posted but almost a month has gone. I checked the countdown timer on our website (https://www.bungeysontour2018.com) 97 days to go…. the countdown from 100 has begun!

It sounds terribly trite to say “The time is just flying by” however it does seem to be and my admin brain goes into overdrive and I check and double check lists to make sure we’ve not missed something big and obvious! As I recently said to a friend, it’s not the travel next year that I find daunting, it’s the logistics of leaving here putting our life in South Africa in a holding pattern that is the formidable task!

I’ve found a new strategy to reduce my heart rate when I get a bit frazzled by admin, I spend some time looking at our current version of our itinerary and look for beautiful remote places we can go to on the trip that will not break the bank. The pictures of crystal clear water and coconut trees lining a white sand beach are enough to calm the fastest beating heart.

On a positive admin note, we’ve made some progress on a few fronts. Most exciting is that we’ve booked the villa on Skopelos island, Greece where we will be meeting up with friends in September 2018. We’ve booked a great villa with a pool overlooking Skopelos town through Thaslpos Holidays (click here to go to their website).

Their service has been very good so far and the bonus, even with our weak currency for 2 weeks for 7 people it was great value! In fact, it is exactly this time next year we will be lounging around the pool sipping on a chilled beverage watching the children play in the pool, bliss!

<- The view from Villa Eleonas terrace. I see a few Negroni's being sipped taking in this view.

The next big bit of progress was Charlotte and I being granted Australian and US visas. There was a lot of paperwork in involved and everything had to be certified, thanks to the lovely lady at Constantia post office wo patiently certified about 60 pages for me! Next up, the New Zealand application. I had to leave this for last as it is not a totally online process and it would seem for South Africans your passport has to go to Pretoria, the website says current turnaround times is 20 days! Best I get cracking with the process once I get my passports back from the US consulate. The positive note is I have every document imaginable certified and ready to be submitted!

We’ve got a favour to ask of everyone reading our blog, among them many well travelled friends and acquaintances. I am working on putting up a page on our website where you can all add your comments and advice about some of our destinations. We are of course reading tons of blogs and sites like Lonely Planet and TripAdvisor and other world traveller forums but there is nothing like the advice of your friends who have actually been to that place! So, keep an eye out for a post on our Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/bungeysontour2018/) with a link to our website site travel advice page coming up soon!

As I am about to close my laptop and leave this blog post for a some editing later I am reminded again how incredibly fortunate our little family is to be heading off on this adventure in 97 days and get shivers thinking about packing our bags and heading off to the airport for our first flight of our journey on the 9th January 2018!